Resonance Raman spectroscopy of the radial breathing modes in carbon nanotubes

In the last decade, many theoretical and experimental achievements have been made in the photophysics of single wall carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Such accomplishments allowed us to gain a deep understanding of the photophysics behind the transition energy (E-ii) and the radial breathing mode frequency (omega(RBM)) dependence on nanotube chirality (n, m). This work is devoted to assemble and discuss what has been done on the research of the SWNT electronic and vibrational properties, based on the radial breathing mode (RBM) resonance Raman spectroscopy. Attention is directed to the understanding of how a change in the environment changes the correlation between (E-ii, omega(RBM)) and (n, m). From the analysis of several data in the literature, we derive a simple routine for the (E-ii, omega(RBM))->(n, m) assignment. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.